Complexity is not a substitute for intelligent design. Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean you substitute god for an answer. Religious apologists need a course on physics, thermodynamics, evolution, genetics, etc etc etc.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed (First law of thermodynamics). The universe is simply energy. It was never created. Created implies a creator, and that isn’t the case. It always was, even before the big bang. Energy just changes form. We described the way this energy materializes and behaves using the discipline of physics. Physics is not truth. It’s just a description of how physical bodies behave.
So long as we are always exploring and accumulating more data (science) there will always contradictions, because new information causes us to revise our understanding. When we toss out old ideas, and adopt new ideas that possess more explanatory power and utility, we progress our understanding of the world.
What does Ray Comfort believe? In a book, the bible? Who wrote the bible. Men? Who wrote the Vedas? Dao de jing? Qur’an? Dhammapada? Qur’an? The Catholic Bible is different from the Protestant Bible; which one is correct? Who wrote those books? Men? What makes one book better than another book? Who possess the truth? Who’s God is correct?
Are men fallible? Yes. Would you rather put your faith in a book, written hundreds or thousands of years ago, by a man or even dozens of men, who supposedly heard the voice of a supernatural being?, or evidence?
What is evidence?
Evidence is data, and data is collected by our senses when we experience the world. When we study a subject, such as biology, we collect data via our senses, using direct observation with our eyes, nose, ears, or touch, or indirect observation using instruments like microscopes or mass spectrometers etc. Evidence is data that is accessible to every man, because it can be experienced and evaluated. We can say: Look at this data. Here is a particle, and this is its behavior. We can measure it and quantify it, and identify patterns, and then infer the significance of these patterns. After we formulate an inference, we test it. We start with a hypothesis, and we try to falsify it with experimentation. We subject the hypothesis to tests. If the hypothesis fails, we revise the hypothesis and do the experiment over again. If the hypothesis is upheld, we then go to other experts and show it to them. In the scientific community this is called peer review, where other experts in the field look at the methodology and results and poke holes in the hypothesis. They even try to duplicate the results. If the hypothesis is upheld under scrutiny and it cannot be falsified, then it is established as fact. Facts form the basis of theories. If enough facts are accumulated, they form the basis of our understanding of the world and its nature. “A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Such fact-supported theories are not “guesses” but reliable accounts of the real world.” In time, some theories even become laws, because they are so reliable for explaining our world, we can even use them to make predictions.
This is science.
It is constantly wrong, and constantly updating its beliefs in light of new evidence. This is progress. It doesn’t pretend to know it all. That’s why it’s great. It always gets better.
And the alternative is what? A book? What book? your book? Ray Comfort’s book? Written by who? Lots of people? One person? Why believe them? Because they heard the voice of god? They were chosen? What about the Mormons? The the guy down the street who hears voices? Or Muhammad? What makes anyone more legitimate for writing divinely inspired texts than anyone else?
And are these books wrong? Never? They never change? They just want the world to conform to their beliefs? This sounds dark and twisted and controlling.
The people that believe in religious texts are never wrong? Or, only christians are right, but everyone else is wrong? But then, every christian has been graced with the truth, but everyone else in the world is just lost and suffering because why? God wants to punish them to hell for eternity?
But didn’t we establish that humans are fallible and wrong? They make mistakes? So then, we have to admit, there’s a good chance that a religious person’s belief in the absolute correctness of their religion is probably mistaken.
So what’s the alternative? Science. Why? Because it humbly looks for ways it can be wrong so it can add to its body of understanding and progress its knowledge and explain more things that we don’t understand.
William Dare 